Friday, February 22, 2008

I want my Chateau Mouton Rothschild

One Sunday Morning, the husband and I watched Sunday Morning, the delightfully geriatric CBS program. We enjoyed a feature on the Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

Cultivated and bottled at the famous wine estate in Bordeaux, the CMR is a red wine, regarded as one of the best. Now a wine that costs thousands of dollars would be interesting enough, but there is something else about the CMR that takes it from swanky to sensational.

Long ago, the honcho, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, decided that each year's label be designed by a famous artist of the day, and in 1946, made it so.

Since then, the labels of the CMR have been designed by the likes of Jean Cocteau (1947), Salvador Dali (1958), Marc Chagall (1970), Andy Warhol (1975), Keith Haring (1988), Francis Bacon (1990), etc.

In keeping with previous blog themes:
(a tradition of fuddy-dudd
ism)

The '93 label by the French painter Balthus, a pencil drawing of a "nude reclining nymphet," wasn't allowed to be distributed in the US. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms found it to be indecent. So, in America, the label was left blank. Both versions are highly sought after by collectors.

(Prince Charles) did 2004. He painted something I think is a tree and is my least favorite. Also, not an artist.

See all labels here.

2 comments:

  1. I enjoy the Dorothea Tanning and the Saul Steinberg. I can't quite make out the latter, but I like the little man.

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